Report -ChÃ¢teau de Noisy - March 2013 - Belgium

www.TrevBish.co.uk

Visited with 7 other people. Amazing place but a little too trashed. This was the first stop on our Belgium tour!

The ChÃ¢teau de Noisy was built for the Counts of Liedekerke-Beaufort, a family with an illustrious history in the low countries and with important links to French aristocracy. ChÃ¢teau de Noisy was built as a summer retreat and as a modern alternative to the family seat, the nearby ChÃ¢teau de VÃªves, which had been abandoned during the tumult of the French Revolution. It is Neo-Gothic in style and repeatedly referenced as having been designed by the English architect Milner. Following his death work was continued by Pelchner, a Frenchman. Building began in 1866 and it took more than forty years for the castle to be completed in its entirety. By the end of the First World War it was in the possession of the SNCB (the Belgian national rail company) who used it as a holiday camp for the children of railway workers. It was occupied by the Germans at the outset the Second World War and the surrounding area was at the furthest reaches of the German advance during the Ardennes offensive. Following the war it reverted to SNCB ownership and it continued as a holiday camp until the 1980s. Increasing maintenance costs led to the holiday camp business model being uneconomical and a search for investors to redevelop the castle as a hotel were unsuccessful. A fire in 1991 sealed the fate of the castle, it has sat empty since and is now close to ruin.